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100% effort with 2/3's capability is better than 50% effort and 100% capbiity.

Best Practices:

Share the best-ways to optimize your business.Email us at info@oqlsolutons.com with your best practices and lessons learned in a paragraph or two. Include your name, title, and company website. (note: no sales pitches please, and may be edited for brevity)

Tips for Telesales -- and yes, it still works!

Telesales can still work extremely well, but you may need to get creative with your database and approach to find your prospects. Here are four successful methods for avoiding having to make the dreaded "cold call"...

Attending high-level events and conferences:

One company that sells due diligence and corporate turnaround services sees that at least one of their consultants attends TMA, ACG and like-level events. Following up on these events and reminding attendees that they may have bumped into one of the firm's partners results in over 90% of reached attendees agreeing to get more information on the company's services.

Use sponsored white papers:

A company selling $50K-$1M software uses white papers from Aberdeen and Forrester to develop leads. These sponsored white papers are not inexpensive, but the latest Aberdeen white paper generated 700 leads for the firm, often from Fortune 500 decision-makers who would never approach the company directly for information.

Working with a deeply embedded partner:

A leader in the medical bracelets and labels field found that traditional buyers -- lab and pharmacy directors -- didn't care all that much about whether they could save because it wasn't their money and they were being bombarded with calls from the company and competitors. The firm found a way to reach the people who did care -- people in the C-suite -- by partnering with a large consulting firm with a deep medical vertical. This company took over hospitals in financial trouble, so the company's hospital-wide savings were a welcome program that made both parties look good.

Social Media:

Yes, it can pay off, and if done properly, very, very fast: The best prospects are the one who have already raised their hands and showing interest. Social media can be terrific at uncovering leads, and Linked In is particularly good for B2B opportunities. By using NextSlide to create webcasts and spreading those webcasts to the right Linked In groups (you can join 50 groups), then coordinating these efforts with Facebook and Twitter through Hootsuite, many companies are outdistancing email and other marketing methods. When they marry these inquiries to inside sales, they finally uncover some of the financial promise of social media. With as little as 3-4 hours of effort, less than $1000 invested, and in as little as a week's time, smart companies are beginning to make the kind of social media ROI they've dreamed about.

Spend time understanding the 'today' state, first.:

Just as obviously as you can't get to your final destination unless you know a) where you are b) the means you want to use (plane, car, bus...) and c) whether you have the resources, one must do the same in business. Focus on the 'a': where are we now? Spend time gaining internal and external information on what you do, how you do it, and how well you do it. Unless you have candidly asked for these impressions, what you think is going on is probalby incorrect. Ask the right questions and you know where you are.

Document the processes that really happen, not how they are supposed to work. A flow-diagram works best. Follow the piece of paper, the part or the information as in naturally flows through the system. Note how long it sits in inventory (or the inbox) before it moves out. Now you know your capabilities. This is the tie between the 'b' and 'c' of what you are capable of today, versus what you'd like to have happen.

Then one can figure out what's needed to do to get there, and what are the resources you will need. (Oh! And you'll know the hurdles to be overcome). Janet Nelson. President, J Nelson Enterprise LLC / OQL Solutions.